The Hairy Ape

Story as Old as Time

Universally themed dramas retain their force and impact years after they first appear as they reflect the core emotions and thinking of each generation that see and read them. These themes reach across time and nationalities because they tackle what seem to be intractable issues. Such is the case with Eugene O’Neill’s nearly one hundred year old play The Hairy Ape. In modern terms, readers and audiences can focus in four important aspects of the play reflecting issues we struggle with today: the one percent vs. everybody else (top deck vs. stokehold), the meaningfulness of work (the pride of Yank), the expression of masculinity (Yank’s strength), and our place in the world (Yank’s existential quandary).

The show more play opens in the stokehole of an ocean liner, where workmen feed the furnace while they banter crudely among themselves. In particular one, Yank, talks about this strength and the fact that he and his companions are what power the ship, the force, if you will, that moves the world. Yank is confident, strong, prideful, and superior to those around him.

Then from above deck Mildred, daughter of the Steel Trust tycoon, who has just told her aunt of her interest in social work, descends into the stokehold. Upon seeing the men and Yank, she calls them and him filthy beasts, Yank a hairy ape, and faints. Afterwards, Yank rages and seems to be battling with the incident as an existential experience.

Three weeks later, after returning to the New York port, Yank still struggles with his encounter with Mildred and his anger. On Fifth Avenue, he accosts churchgoers, punching one of them. He lands in jail for 30 days, there encountering prisoners who tell him about the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies). Upon release, he seeks them out, but they reject him because of his violent proclamations, especially his wish to blow up the Steel Trust run by Mildred’s father.

Next, he visits the zoo, where he encounters a caged ape, explains that they are seen as one and the same. He releases the ape. The ape attacks him and tosses him in the cage. Before dying, Yank utters these words: “He got me, aw right. I'm trou. Even him didn't tink I belonged.”

Not only does The Hairy Ape demonstrate there’s nothing much new in 21st angst, but stripped of its setting, reimagined in our own lives, it mirrors and explains the frustration felt by many today. It’s a story that’s been retold many times since and some might say acted out in the politics of our day. show less

Story as Old as Time

Universally themed dramas retain their force and impact years after they first appear as they reflect the core emotions and thinking of each generation that see and read them. These themes reach across time and nationalities because they tackle what seem to be intractable issues. Such is the case with Eugene O’Neill’s nearly one hundred year old play The Hairy Ape. In modern terms, readers and audiences can focus in four important aspects of the play reflecting issues we struggle with today: the one percent vs. everybody else (top deck vs. stokehold), the meaningfulness of work (the pride of Yank), the expression of masculinity (Yank’s strength), and our place in the world (Yank’s existential quandary).

The show more play opens in the stokehole of an ocean liner, where workmen feed the furnace while they banter crudely among themselves. In particular one, Yank, talks about this strength and the fact that he and his companions are what power the ship, the force, if you will, that moves the world. Yank is confident, strong, prideful, and superior to those around him.

Then from above deck Mildred, daughter of the Steel Trust tycoon, who has just told her aunt of her interest in social work, descends into the stokehold. Upon seeing the men and Yank, she calls them and him filthy beasts, Yank a hairy ape, and faints. Afterwards, Yank rages and seems to be battling with the incident as an existential experience.

Three weeks later, after returning to the New York port, Yank still struggles with his encounter with Mildred and his anger. On Fifth Avenue, he accosts churchgoers, punching one of them. He lands in jail for 30 days, there encountering prisoners who tell him about the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies). Upon release, he seeks them out, but they reject him because of his violent proclamations, especially his wish to blow up the Steel Trust run by Mildred’s father.

Next, he visits the zoo, where he encounters a caged ape, explains that they are seen as one and the same. He releases the ape. The ape attacks him and tosses him in the cage. Before dying, Yank utters these words: “He got me, aw right. I'm trou. Even him didn't tink I belonged.”

Not only does The Hairy Ape demonstrate there’s nothing much new in 21st angst, but stripped of its setting, reimagined in our own lives, it mirrors and explains the frustration felt by many today. It’s a story that’s been retold many times since and some might say acted out in the politics of our day. show less

این دومین نمایشنامه‌ای بود که از اونیل می‌خوندم و متأسفانه به دلم ننشست. می‌دونم اونیل نمایشنامه‌نویس قهاریه و زبردسته و غیره اما من نه امپراتور جونز رو دوست داشتم نه این نمایشنامه رو. البته بیشترش برمی‌گرده به سلایق من. مثلاً من دوست دارم نمایشنامه صحنه‌های محدود و مکان‌های کم‌تعدادی داشته باشه... در واقع به نظرم چیزی که نمایشنامه و فیلمنامه رو از رمان و سریال جدا می‌کنه موجز بودنش در تمام سطوحه و تا show more جایی که تو این دوتا دیدم اونیل هر صحنه‌اش تو یه مکان جدید اتفاق می‌افته. چیز دیگه‌ای که به سلیقه‌ی من خوش نمیاد اینه که اثر حرفش رو اقلاً در یکی از سطوح فریاد بزنه مخصوصاً در بحث‌های سیاسی و فلسفی. مطمئناً لایه‌های زیرین دیگه‌ای از لحاظ جامعه‌شناسی داره اما من از رک بودن اثر خوشم نمیاد.
شاید از اونیل باز هم چیزی بخونم و شاید زمان دیگه‌ای از اونیل خوشم بیاد. show less

A fabulous piece of symbolism. I wonder how it plays in this day and age. The dialect is a little much, but it certainly helps put Yank apart, emphasizing that he doesn't belong.

Setting: This anti-technological play is set on a ship and in New York during the industrial age.

Plot: Yank, a stoker on an ocean liner searches for belonging and ultimately dies.

Characters: Robert Smith (protagonist)- "Yank" attempt to think; Paddy- Irish, represents past connections with nature; Long- British, socialist; Mildred (antagonist) anemic, Yank's subconscious, false

Symbols: cage, statue of the thinker, the characters

Characteristics: Divided into 4 scenes of realism and 4 scenes of surrealism

My Reaction: I felt that O'Neill's comments about the dehumanization caused by industry ring true, but I don't think he realized that it was a perversion of religion that oppressed the worker and that socialism took away individualism

This story is about a hairy shipmen worker who bully fellow workers and always up for fight and always damage everyone self respect until one day when a women hurt his ego and he go rogue and decide to take revenge and take everything he got and start behaving like ape and meet with a bad end when he jump in front of prime ape and went for fight and got himself killed in the cage .
This story is absurd from the point of view of people, because of temperamental issues and ego problem he became victim of circumstances and that lead to his tragic end . This book shows how bad temperament and unnecessary taking up things on male ego and doing abnormal things that will harm you too, but you are in self destructive mode and met a tragic end show more
somewhat not easy to understand in one time so read it again to understand the message of the End show less